Happy Tuesday and welcome to Day 14! Can you believe we are almost half way through?

Today was a 5 mile run for me. Since I have absolutely nothing to do tonight and nowhere to be, I’ll be fitting in some abs and light weights at home.

Whether this is your first race or you are a pro, there are still some things you need to do to be ready to race. I’m going to share with you what I do and what I’ve learned.

Train for it. You’d think that would be an obvious one. Even with no expectations of winning, you still need to put in some training. Skipping runs and not putting effort in can get you injured and at the very least disappoint yourself. If you’re going to pay for the race, you might as well train for it.

Check out the route. If it’s possible, run or drive the route ahead of time. Most races will put the route and elevation on their website. It’s good to know if there will be hills so you can prepare.

Check where the water stops are located, especially if you rely on them during a race. I wear my iFitness hydration belt in a half but it still needs refilling around mile 7. It scares me to be without water when I want it. I won’t normally run past a water stop if my bottle is empty.

Check the weather. I have a bad habit of over dressing for races. The in between temps get me. One of my friends says over 45 degrees is long sleeves, under 45 degrees is short sleeves. If there’s rain be prepared with dry clothes and shoes at the end. Wear a rain proof jacket if you have one, otherwise grab a trash bag. Put your phone in a baggy too.

Arrive early. Due to circumstances beyond by control, I arrived at a race last year with about 2 minutes to spare. Literally got in my corral and started my watch and we were off! I was a little panicky. Allow time for bathroom breaks, traffic, pictures, stretching and parking. At big races parking can be a mess.

Drink water. You should be anyway, but the days and week leading up to a race, make sure you are hydrated.

Eat well that morning. If it’s a 5k you may not need much. For a half I eat a bagel with peanut butter and banana. I eat it early to allow time to digest. I will drink something with electrolytes in it too.

Don’t wear something brand new. You never know what may be itchy, rub a blister or worse. You don’t want any race day wardrobe malfunctions!

Have fun, smile for the cameras and thank the volunteers!

We also have a great giveaway starting today from Handana. This is a great accessory for running. I needed it Sunday but left it in my gym bag (of course). I have fairly small hands, I wear a small Handana. Use your Handana to wipe sweat (or snot) from your face instead of your sleeve! It’s soft and machine washable. Available in lots of color options and different sizes.

The giveaway runs from 8AM CST January 14, 2014 and ends 8Pm CST January 19, 2014. The winner will be announced January 20, 2014. No purchase necessary. Must be US resident to received the prize. Void where prohibited by law.

This is it! Did you stick with us the whole month? I hope you are seeing the results of your hard work.

So, now what? Well, hopefully you started something you are ready to continue! I love that I tried new stuff I tried this month!

Yoga

Pull up machine at the gym

Stair master

Spin class

Yogurt (baby steps!)

If you weighed and measured at the beginning of January you should weigh and measure in the next few days. Feel free to share your progress! I measured this morning and I think everything was the same. But that’s just a guess since I deleted an email account from my phone it deleted the notes attached to it. I will weigh in the morning.

Yesterday I didn’t make it to the gym, had to take little Molly to the vet and it was early release from school. I did however do some spring cleaning, vacuuming, dusting, laundry, dishes and scrubbing bath tubs is a work out, right? I got over 5,000 steps on my Fitbug.

We still have Swiftwick socks to give away, 6 more pair size small (shoe size 5-7.5). Click on the Rafflecopter link below to enter to win a pair! Ends Monday night at 11:59PM.

The winner of the Handana is Micky Schembri and the winner of the Beachbody set is Kirsten Diehl!

You ladies should receive an email verifying your address.

This morning I helped out with a virtual race with my Moms Run This Town Chapter. I wasn’t able to run, still resting my foot. We had about 40 or so runners, including two 11 year old girls. We offered 5k, 10k and half marathon distance. It was really foggy and humid but I was expecting pouring down rain so I’d say the weather cooperated. I’ll be hitting the gym this evening for my workout. I also got to run on a really cool treadmill called an Alter G, it’s an anti gravity treadmill, got in a mile this morning.

I did score some new shoes to try, got them at the Rockwall Running Center. It’ll be 4-5 days at least before I can take them for a test run but I’m excited! Anyone run in Newton’s?

If you love this, please share it!

Happy Monday and welcome to Day 7 of #30DayHomies. How was your weekend? Monday is normally a rest day for me, but I will get a Nike Training workout and stretching in this evening.

I found a few great songs recently. Anyone have these in your playlist?

We Run the Night, by Havana Brown feat. Pitbull

Try, by Pink

Hall of Fame, by The Script feat. will.i.am

Girl on Fire, by Alicia Keys

I’m always looking for new music, what have you got?

I’ve been asked recently when filling out applications for ambassador programs what my “fitness motto” is. I never really thought about it, but I think I found it!

This week brings giveaways from Handana and Beachbody. I just found the Handana not that long ago, it’s a cool invention! They sent me one to try for this week’s giveaway. Katie has a great story about why she started Handana, be sure and check out the website. Basically Handana is a “high performance fashionable sweatband”, you wear on your hand to wipe the sweat from your forehead or neck (or snot, ya know whatever you need it for!), without having to carry something to use. The material is soft and it comes in a ton of colors and 6 different sizes. Since it’s cold here in Texas right now, I’ve been trying it out at the gym and it’s great! I really don’t know how I’ve managed without it. I am wearing the small, we have a medium in gray/black to give away.

Click on the Rafflecopter link below to enter the Handana giveaway!

Visit Sara at She Cooks, She Crafts, She Runs. Check out her post on the Beachbody Challenge she starts today and enter to win the Beachbody giveaway. It’s jam packed with some great stuff from StefCrumFitness4Life!

What was your workout today?

Don’t forget if you shared the #30DayHomies challenge to let us know by January 10!

*I was provided a Handana free of charge. All opinions expressed are my own.

If you love this, please share it!

Happy New Year and welcome to the #30DayHomies Challenge. The month of January will consist of 30 days of workouts, eating right and being held accountable. Oh and LOTS OF PRIZES!

Your 30 days can be anything that gets you moving, even if it’s 15 minutes of ab work or a walk around the block. The goal is to start something or keep your routine going and to be held accountable. I have teamed up with Sara at She Cooks She Crafts She Runs for this awesome challenge! We have many sponsors who have given us great prizes to give away. All you have to do is enter and participate!

The challenge will start on January 1 and end January 31. Make sure you get our blog updates, follow along on Facebook or Twitter. If you use Twitter make sure you use the hash tag #30DayHomies and tag @howmyworldruns in your post. (Example, I did 30 minutes on the treadmill today! #30dayhomies @howmyworldruns). Don’t worry, if you don’t use Twitter there will be Facebook and Blog posts to participate in.

We will ask you each day to tell us what you did to get moving. Go for a walk, run, swim, bike, go to the gym, start a #plankaday challenge, Nike Training, Jillian Michaels, anything that gets you off the couch! Then you just need to enter the drawing for the fabulous prizes we have lined up. There will be drawings each week!

To kick it off on January 1 we will give away one 3M Reflective Happy Band from Running-Happy. All you have to do is enter the contest on January 1. It will only be up for one day!

We have some great Grand Prizes lined up as well, they are TOP secret for now! But trust me, you will be excited!

If you grab this button and share it on Twitter, Facebook or your own blog, send an email with the link to aggie06sara@gmail.com and she will mail you Sweat Pink Shoe Laces. You also get an extra entry in the Grand Prize.